I predict that this book will be a bestseller because people who read, like reading about reading. And most of them were avid child readers, so will be in tune with Mangan’s account of her childhood reading. Lucy Mangan is probably best known as a Guardian columnist and TV reviewer. Here she sends herself up as a nerdy, precocious bookworm who preferred reading to life; life being, according to other people, socialising and getting out in the fresh air occasionally. We follow her through reading picture books (Judith Kerr, Shirley Hughes), with her father to discovering Judy Blume in her teens; on the way falling for Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and classics like Little Women, The Secret Garden, Tom’s Midnight Garden and the Just William books. Far too many books to mention, although they all cry out for it.

The forty-something generation will find much to sympathise with here and will probably utter glad cries of recognition as each fictional treasure is revealed and squealed over. People my age will think, poor Lucy, she was born too late (she may agree with this). She seems to have gone to terrible schools full of silly girls, only one of whom became a reading friend. She was never able to get into historical fiction because she didn’t know any history. She wouldn’t read any books with animals in and so missed out on, for example, The Wind in the Willows. I’m pleased to report that she now regrets this.

Where she’s so good is on the importance of reading, of entering another world and above all, rereading favourites over and over again. I personally find her style juvenile for someone her age; far too much ‘ya wanna’ and ‘yer’ and her determination to be funny all the time can be irritating. It’s a tribute to her enthusiasm that I obtained copies of and read two of her favourite books: Keep - Out Private by Gwen Grant and Sybil Burr’s Life with Lisa. They didn’t have me falling about laughing but they are good and I agree that they shouldn’t be out of print. I also *had* to reread immediately some of my own old favourites (Tom’s Midnight Garden and Eve Garnett’s One End Street books). Whether or not you agree with all the author’s opinions, you certainly won’t find the book dull.

I read this thanks to the publishers and NetGalley. It’s out on 1st March: order now!

As a self-proclaimed bookworm I love nothing more than hearing about other bookworm's reading experiences. Lucy Mangan's memoir is exactly the sort of nostalgia trip I hoped it would be. It was a little self-indulgent in places but if you can't be self-indulgent in a memoir, when can you be?

Her descriptions of the books she read as a child are wonderful and the historical background she gives to the publication of each book was fascinating for the most part (although I'll admit to skimming one or two books which I myself never read).

What I loved most about this book was the passion for reading that jumped off the page. I've never before read something which so accurately sums up why I love reading, what I feel when I read and how it feels like every book I read as a child became part of my soul. It was an absolute joy to travel through Lucy's childhood with her and discover that it wasn't just me ploughing my way through childhood devouring book after book.

As I've grown up I've realised that true bookworms are few and far between. The same people that tell me they love reading balk at the idea I read 100 books a year. Lucy, I feel, would be my ideal friend. The type of friend you could meet up with for coffee but spend most of your time reading in companionable silence, only coming up for air to share a particularly good passage.

If you're anything like me you'll read "Bookworm" and will want to keep notes so you don't forget all the books you want to look up after you've finished reading. Luckily, a very handy list of all the books discussed is included should you forget which ones you had intended to seek out. Personally there are a few on the list I can't wait to check out for the first time, many I read as a child and would love to revisit as an adult and more still I look forward to sharing with my daughter in the years to come.

As a life-long bookworm, I could not wait to get my hands on Mangan's book about her childhood reading. I'm always keen to read about the experiences of one of my own tribe of book obsessives and was anticipating a blast from the past of my own childhood reading.

I was absolutely not disappointed. Being a similar age to Mangan, a lot of her book choices are cosily familiar and she writes with humour and passion. It was lovely to hear her take on old favourites, such as The Borrowers and Goodnight Mister Tom, as well as many books that I loved as a child and have recently shared with my own children. It was also wonderful to hear echoes of my own adult reservations about some of the books I loved as a child - growing up really does put some of them in a new and unflattering light! I was also reminded of some books I haven't thought about for about 20 years...for example, Love and Betrayal and Hold the Mayo (anyone?!) Of course not all of Mangan's choices were familiar, but it's so well written that it feels like a friend recommending you great new reads.

What I really loved was Mangan's defence of being a bookworm as it is something a lot of people don't understand. Bits of this made me laugh out loud as it was all so familiar.

I'd strongly recommend this to any keen readers who want a humorous, nostalgic trip through the bookcases of their childhood. I suspect it will particularly strike a chord with (probably female) bookworms of a similar age to Mangan (I think 43) who will have a great time rediscovering their love of Sweet Valley High, Judy Blume and other classics!

There is a lot of autobiography in this round-up of a life's reading of juvenile fiction, from The Very Hungry Caterpillar up to whatever school mates had inked out as fruity bits in adult novels. Conversely, there is a lot of appreciation for the hobby/lifestyle/necessity of reading in this summary of a woman's upbringing with contrasting parents, and not much patience for the idea of real-life friends. It's all fine and well, but the style is really going to be Marmite - it really does just seem to flump unedited on to the page (witness her constant use of extended sections in brackets that make you lose your thread by the time they ended - see what I did there?!), and the sense of humour is extremely forced, forceful and flawed throughout. Apart from that, of course, it's right up my street, even when being of a different gender I was reading very much a different selection of books at the same time.

Part memoir, part chronicle of childrens’ publishing, this is a witty, touching and heartfelt exploration. There are lots of wry observations, with Lucy Mangan bringing to the books brilliantly to life- as well as the family and friends she references.

On a couple of occasions, the detail about the books outweighs the anecdotes; the reader finds themselves learning more about the book itself than Lucy’s association with it. This is only a minor point, and doesn’t diminish how engaging Bookworm’ is. One to pick up and re-read again and again.

I found this book a bit of a mixed bag, mostly down to the personal preferences of myself and the author. It's a mix of book reviews and memoir and while we read a lot of the same books as children, it varied in the later texts. I do love the passion with which this book has been written, the author clearly loves reading and that makes it quite delightful. However, I found the book dragged a little when I didn't identify with some of her feelings and thoughts on certain novels.

This is both a wonderfully evocative memoir of a childhood spent (as mine was) with one's nose in a book, and a powerful argument for the power of books to expand our horizons.

Well. If you, like me - and Lucy Mangan - are a bookworm, prepare to clasp this book to your heart...
In a delightful mix of book reviews, memory and memoir, Lucy revisits some of her childhood favourites, lightly sketches the history of publishing for children, reminds you of cherished books you loved as a child and introduces you to ones you wish you had read, and now will.

Insightful and snort-inducingly funny, this is the book for you if you:

Loved SVH
Look for Secret Gardens
Are Forever fans of Ralph
Check the backs of old wardrobes

Love love love...

A nostalgic memoir about childhood reading in the 70’s and 80’s. As I grew up at a similar time I did find many of the books I had read in here so it was a trip down memory lane.

A lovely book reminding you about the power of reading especially at a young age and the importance of imagination.

I would have liked to have read more - such as reading in adulthood now but perhaps a second book about this will follow? I did find some of the lengthy plot
Descriptions a bit unnecessarily but I guess important in case people hadn’t read the books.

Overall a nostalgic and interesting read.

A wonderfully nostalgic book that i read in just one day and sent me back to memories of my own childhood as an avid reader.
The author Lucy Mangan who writes for the Guardian newspaper takes us on a journey to her childhood as a prolific reader of just about every children's book available to her. She gives a little potted history on the authors, the characters and the stories themselves aswell as a glimpse of her own childhood and how books became a big part of her life.
It was interesting to see how books have changed in the space of thirty years,for example, Enid Blyton's Famous Five series which i absolutely loved as a child but now seem tame, unreadable and very dated, and although they have had a bit of a revamp recently, they still do not resonate with this generation of young children.
The Miffy books with the little rabbit who says the most by saying nothing is still as popular today as when they were first published in 1955 and i guess the appeal is the simplistic drawings which do not date and will probably be just as popular with children in a hundred years time.
The Bookworm-A Memoir of Childhood Reading has a handy list of books at the back titled Lucy's Bookshelf which readers can then easily copy and introduce their children to these titles.
I received this copy from #Bookworm #NetGalley for my honest opinion

I absolutely loved the first half of this book! It's such a trip down memory lane. It all starts with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the details the author has researched about this book and many of the others mentioned, are fascinating. Then there are Milly Molly Mandy, The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and I started to think 'I bet The Borrowers and Stig of the Dump won't get a mention' but they do! Every book that I remember being important to me during my childhood is in here.

The second half was a little different as what I read and what the author read were different. It was still very interesting to read about the books the author featured, but they were largely books I knew nothing about.

The thing that made this a four star rather than a five star read for me were the reference notes which appear throughout the text. In a paperback or hardback these would probably be presented in smaller text at the bottom of the page. But in the e version, they are asterisked and then the note appear within the main text, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes it was tricky to see where the note ended and the main text began again. This spoiled the readability a little bit, but I guess it is something the publishers may refine in the final published version. That aside, it was a lovely read and a book I have talked about to many of my family and friends.

Thank you to Netgally for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The life of a child entangled with the books she read, unluckily as I'm Italian, not all the titles were known or famous for me, still and enjoyable reading.

La vita di una bambina intrecciata con le sue letture, purtroppo il fatto di essere italiana significa che non tutti i titoli mi dicessero qualcosa, comunque mi sono divertita a leggere il libro.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

I think that I am of a very similar age to Mangan and so many of her experiences and book memories are the same as mine, from titles we read to how our families treated the reader. This book jogged my memory in so many ways that I now have a huge list of books to rediscover in 2018.